The Parlor

[arcanum_oracles]

OUTDATED: This information is here for reference only. New Parlor posts will be made monthly.You have just found yourself standing in a room, swathed in velvet, with assorted shelves lining it. The room is quite dark and smoky. Do you smell incense? Or maybe cigarettes? Resting on the shelves are assorted crystals, spheres, gemstones, and statues,

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[orphanblues]

This wasn't where Jo meant to be, this wasn't where she was supposed to be, and frankly, she was kind of pissed about both of those things. And she was pretty sure magically appearing in some fortune teller's shop couldn't be a sign of anything good.

For a second, she considered the sign on the table before snorting scornfully and spinning around to survey the room. Fuck that. She didn't know how she got here, and she was not sitting around idly to wait for an explanation. She'd just... find it herself.

She didn't have her shotgun on her, so she settled for pulling out a knife and starting to circle the room cautiously, looking for a business card, a map (maybe that was asking a little much), anything to tell her where the hell she'd ended up.

"Hello?" she called after a minute, wincing a little as her voice broke the heavy silence. It settled back in quickly, though, like a thick blanket, and Jo found herself just wanting to shake it off completely. "Anybody home?"

[arcanum_oracles]

The curtains parted suddenly, the beads rattling angrily in a way that suggested if there had been a real door in its place, it would have been thrown open in anger. There was no doubt now that the smoky smell came from cigarettes, as the Stranger made his agitated presence known.

"God, doesn't anyone know how to read anymore?" the impatient Oracle muttered around his cigarette, shuffling cards and making his way over to his seat. He sat down gracelessly, putting the cards down long enough to take his cigarette from his mouth, then apparently thought better of it, taking another drag from it before motioning with it to the seat opposite him.

"Well, sit down," he ordered.

[orphanblues]

Jo spun to face him as he entered, and then raised an eyebrow at the question. She flipped her knife in her hand in a movement that could be faint warning, or could just be some mixture of boredom and annoyance. "I read the sign. Doesn't mean I have to listen."

She circled around slowly to the chair indicated, and decided there probably couldn't be any harm in listening to him for the moment. She sat down, and then eyed the man from across the table. Not your typical fortune teller, this guy, but of all the weird things going on now, he's the least of her worries. If he were a demon - which is a concern - he'd still be lower down on the list than one crucial question.

"Where am I?"

[arcanum_oracles]

"The Parlor," the Stranger answered, putting his cigarette back to his mouth to shuffle his cards. Once they were shuffled to his liking, he dealt three in front of her. "Located in the City. That's seriously its name, don't blame me for being vague."

He puts his deck of Tarot cards back down and took his cigarette back out of his mouth. "Pick a card. Any one that you like. Don't worry, they don't bite. Often."

[orphanblues]

Jo stared at him for a moment, obviously skeptical. "Who names a city-" She cuts herself off, shaking her head. "Okay, fine. I'm in the City. How did I get here? I was in Columbia Falls last I checked."

She glances down at the cards on the table, back up at him, and then sighs, reaching out to flip one over. She'll humor him if it means he keeps giving her answers, however incredibly unhelpful.

[arcanum_oracles]

"You were brought here. Don't ask me how, the Powers That Be worked some sort of mojo and now there you sit, being your wonderful, sunny self," the Stranger said, reaching over to take the other two cards and shuffle them back into his deck. He tossed his cigarette butt and immediately pulled out a pack of cigarettes, shaking out another one. He leaned back in the chair to light it off of one of the candles in the room

[orphanblues]

Jo picked up the card with a frown, studying it for a minute before her gaze shifted back up to his face. So there's a war. Fine. How different could it really be from the one back home? And the card itself... she'll worry about that later. But every answer he gives her just leads to twenty more questions.

"Great. What ability? And are you gonna tell me where I go from here, or are the Powers that Be just going to drop me there too?" She thinks she can be forgiven for getting a little snappy - not that she cares if he forgives her or not - when no one asked her if she wanted to be here in the first place.

[arcanum_oracles]

The Stranger took another drag off of his cigarette, reaching into his pocket to take out a business card, which he played with between his fingers for a moment. "Oh, hey, questions I can answer. Cups cards are water elemental abilities. Ice falls under the sphere of water. Sky's the limit from there. If it has to do with water, you can do it as long as you get the hang of it. Magic's tricky stuff, especially in the hand of amateurs. Might take you a while to figure it out."

He finally tossed the business card at Jo. "Nope, sadly, you've gotta walk from here. Shouldn't be a long walk. Nice digs all set up for ya. Just follow the directions on the card and you'll be there. Can't miss it, and if you do, well, there's just no helping some people."

[orphanblues]

The business card hit the table and slid toward her, and Jo slapped her hand down over it before it reached the edge, curling it into her palm with a sigh and a half-hearted glare at him. "Thanks," she said, sarcasm weighting the word, and pushed herself to her feet, business and tarot card both in hand.

"If I get jumped by something on the way there, I swear I'm blaming you." She meant it, too. Sometimes it helped to have someone to blame.

[arcanum_oracles]

The Stranger snorted, but stood up. "No one out there to jump you, babe. Take a look outside. Welcome to the City. You'll see a lot of neighborhoods like this one, thanks to that war."

Picking up his cards, he headed back through the beaded curtain.